What a busy week!

Last Wednesday night began one of my favorite holidays, Sukkot, the third and final installment of the Jewish "Holiday Season". The holiday lasts for 8 days, and the first and final 2 days have virtually all the restrictions of a typical Saturday. However, on years such as this year, when the holiday falls begins Wednesday night, the Thursday and Friday holidays roll right into Shabbat, creating a 3-day holiday. Now not only does this mean no crafting, TV, internet, turning on or off lights, or other modern electricity-based comforts, but my relatives that normally spend this 2 day holiday at our house each year were also restricted from traveling home until Saturday night. Three whole days of non-stop family time, without the TV to distract anyone, is pretty intense. But I think everyone enjoyed it, and it was really quality time. Hey, after the holiday ended it took 2 hours to get everyone out of the house, so they must've not hated it or they'd have been packed and ready to go, right?

Saturday night was a marathon stitching session since I was too mentally tired and it was too late to start making plans to go out at 10 when they left. Plus my DVR was full of 3 nights worth of season and series premieres, so I had my work cut out for me! I made some headway on a bunch of cross stitch projects, getting a lot done but finishing nothing. I did however find out what happened to Chloe on Smallville (I was worried), watched them catch the miniature killer and search for Sara on CSI, make my peace with Colby on Numb3rs, and made sure that Sam was okay on Las Vegas - no thanks to the crack security team at the Montecito for once.

I had to work again Sunday in order to not lose all my vacation for the holidays, as I mentioned in a previous post. I worked in an afternoon excursion to Michaels, Staples, and LNT though, and picked up some stitching supplies, stitching organizational supplies, and some storage bins. My cross stitch charts used to be in piles all over the place - I now have a lovely, drab grey binder for unstarted charts, one for some works in progress, and a tangerine binder to organize the freebie charts I've started printing from this great blog. Now if I could only find someplace that sells Rainbow threads I'm set for the next 8 trillion birthdays =)

Yesterday I took care of some painful-but-necessary errands that I won't get into. The evening was much better. My friend Aj had another yoga class last night, and it was even better than the first! We did the Crow again which was so fun! and partner stretching! and you know it was a great workout when body parts don't move or work the day or two after =) Plus yoga was just the thing to clear my head from earlier in the day.

I finished my Fair + Square block last night (of course staying up til 3am to do so was stupid stupid stupid!) Now I need to design my name and town on a block, figure out what small treats to include, and mail the darn thing. Tomorrow. I'd rather not wait until after the holiday to send it Monday, but we'll see how far I get on my name block tonight. I need some sleep!

Oh, yesterday also brought some great news in the form on an email from a former coworker, who quit and moved home to Uruguay recently because she is about to have her first baby. I really like her and was seriously disappointed to learn only 2 days in advance of her leaving the country and the company - I definitely would've crocheted her a baby blanket if I'd known. Anyways, she sent a lovely picture of herself and a little message about what she's up to. Today I even got to Google-chat with her, and she sounds like she is doing very well. She's due in a week! I hope everything goes well for her, her husband and the baby.

I also spoke to an old, old friend from London who's currently living in Paris today. She's invited me to visit and stay by her, and I think I might take her up on it for Thanksgiving week. I might even be able to work in the Paris office a couple of days, which is great because I get to meet people I'd normally only email with, but more importantly, the building that houses the Paris office is the world headquarters for DMC! No kidding. I think I have a picture from the last time I was there, I'll have to post it sometime.

Okay enough blogging, I'd better go start my square if I want to mail it off tomorrow. I have an idea of what to put in the package as extras but I'll need to hit a few stores during lunch. I hope I'll be able to pull it off!

K